Accounts assistant Miss Rutter, 25, said: ‘I didn’t realise until the very end because he’d hidden those pieces, the last bit with the question on. I probably didn’t give him the best response because I was just angry he’d given me more puzzle pieces.

‘But, obviously once I realised what they said, I was so happy.’

The pair met four years ago while working as lifeguards and have been together ever since.

Mr Boast, 28, now a primary school teacher in north London, chose to pop the question through a homemade jigsaw because of Miss Rutter’s love of board games.

He also wrote a romantic poem on the puzzle – but saved the crucial question until last.

Spare a thought for his parents, however, who went for a bike ride to give him some privacy… and ended up cycling 50km (30 miles).